


Come Back To Me

by get_cap_a_boyfriend (fandom_pride)



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 23:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandom_pride/pseuds/get_cap_a_boyfriend
Summary: "Will you do something for me?""For you, my love, anything.""Please, Thomas, come back to me."Thomas Thorne, having inherited his family's wealth and ancestral home (later known as Button House), believes he has everything. He is surrounded by money, is ready to expose his poetry to the world, and has found the love of his life. But his joy is destroyed by the one man he hates; rival poet Lord Byron.





	Come Back To Me

"How **dare** he?!" Thomas Thorne yelled. "Oh, this time he's done it! This time he's **really** done it!" He paced furiously through the huge lounge room of his home, aggressively kicking over the occasional stool or chair. "Damn him to **hell**!" His servants had scattered and the sight of their master in such a state, knowing that he was not to be disturbed in situations like these. "It's not enough that the snake had to take my greatest work from me to claim it as his own, but, now he has the audacity to say that **I** am at fault!" His rage was uncontainable, and his furniture was feeling the full force of his anger. "Well, he will **not** get away with it, not any longer! Lord George Byron will fear me before the day is through!" Then his thoughts turned. _I must inform Diana_, he thought.

___________________________________________________

"You seem troubled, Tom, dear. What ever's the matter?" He wished with all his heart he could tell her truthfully that nothing was wrong. The day was peaceful, the morning bright, and the sun brought Diana's vibrant red hair to life. How he wished he did not have to break such news to her!

"Ana, my sweet, I must tell you something," he began in a whisper.

"What is it?" Her voice was suddenly filled with concern for him. He was never one to hold back in a conversation, now here he was being uncharacteristically vague and quiet.

"I... I am unsure of how to say it," he admitted to her.

"Just tell me," Diana soothed gently.

"I fear you will not like it."

"Say it, and you will find out."

"I have been challenged to a duel..."

"What?" She was unable to hide her horror at his words. "By whom?"

"Lord George Byron."

"Whatever for?"

"He stole my work!"

"You cannot be sure of this, Tom," she said.

"Oh, but I can! And when I confronted him about it, the villain had the gall to say that **I** had stolen from him!"

"Can you not talk it over like gentlemen? Must you brawl like schoolchildren would over a toy?"

"I spent days, weeks, even months working on those poems! I will not have them taken from me. That scoundrel must be taught a lesson, and I will gladly be the one to teach him!" He had once considered himself friends with the man, but now his heart felt nothing but hatred at the sound of his name.

"But a duel?" Diana's eyes filled with tears at the thought of her beloved Thomas wounded by a bullet. "Surely there is a more civilised way to resolve the situation, or at least one that does not risk your life?"

"I have accepted the challenge. I cannot back down now," he stated.

"And why not, Thomas?"

"Because I would be seen as a coward!"

"And what does it matter? It is your life, not theirs! Why should it be a problem that they label you a coward? Tom, you would still have me, and I would not ever think you a coward," she assured him.

"But everyone else would!" 

"Why should it bother them that you value your life? That you would step down from this fight like the grown man you are, rather than stand on the field like a stubborn schoolboy?"

"But Ana, I have to care what people think and say of me!" he defended.

"I thought you weren't like that, Thomas. That was why I fell in love with you. Because you weren't like the rest of them, obsessed with power. Clearly I was wrong." Her voice was sad, her words heavy, and they weighed down his heart.

"But... But I'm not like them..." he protested weakly. A flicker of a sad smile crossed her face before she began to speak again.

"But you are. You are all the same. You men must have your power at any cost. You must have your glory. You put it above reason, above sense..." She paused and sighed. "Above love, even." Then she turned and began to walk away from him.

"No! I would never!" She continued to walk. "Because I love you!" Diana stopped. "I love you more than life itself!" She whirled around and ran to Thomas.

"Then don't do it," she urged, placing her hand on his cheek.

"I must, my darling." He gently moved her hand from his cheek and kissed it softly, before taking a step back. "Now I have to go..."

"Thomas?" she asked, the tears finally escaping and falling down her cheeks. 

"Yes?"

"Will you do something for me?"

"For you, my love, anything."

"Please, Thomas, come back to me."

"I will do everything in my power, I swear it to you," he declared, before kissing her as he never had before.

___________________________________________________

At noon, Thomas stepped out onto the large field of his estate, where the duel was to take place. As he looked out across the seemingly endless rows of green, he spotted a figure approaching him. This was it. He gripped his pistol tighter in his hand, fighting the urge to shoot the man there and then. When he made his way over, Thomas could see the cocky grin on Byron's face, and he intended to wipe it clean away.

"Thorne," Byron greeted.

"Byron," he returned, his voice openly hostile.

"I trust you enjoyed your morning-"

"Can we skip the pleasantries?" Thomas interrupted. "I don't like to converse with thieving rogues."

"As you wish." Both men removed their jackets and tossed them carelessly onto the floor. This was no time to care about how well-kept a jacket would look later. They took their positions, standing back to back, and began to count the paces.

One.

Two. 

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six. 

Seven. 

Eight. 

Nine. 

_Ten._

_____________________________________________________

AsThomas' finger began to squeeze the trigger of his gun, he felt something hit his abdomen. He barely noticed it, but cried out as the bullet entered his body. His right arm dropped to his side, brushing the wound. He noticed the blood on his sleeve almost instantly as his legs gave way. Suddenly, he was falling. The cold grass was not an unwelcome feeling under his body, but it did nothing to soothe the pain that was beginning to grow by the second. Voices swarmed him and swam through his ears, but their words were lost to him, miles away from his mind. His only thoughts were of his lover.

_Diana... I'm so sorry... I made you a promise... And now I've broken it... Please forgive me... _

And then his world was black. 

_____________________________________________________

_"I think he's waking up!"_

_"Who he?"_

_"He's the fancy mans who owned the house, isn't hes?"_

More voices. Thomas' eyes flicked open to see...

A caveman. 

A young coloured woman who's clothes were extremely out of fashion. 

An older woman covered in what he hoped was soot.

And a... _headless body_? 

All staring down at him as he lay there. 

"Where am I?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"Exactly where you weres before," the older woman told him as he stood up slowly.

"Still? But why haven't I been taken to a hospital? I was shot, wasn't I?"

"Ah." It was the younger woman's turn to speak. "Yes. About that... You may want to look down." Thomas did as the woman said, only to see a body lying motionless on the ground. _My God_, he realised in horror, _that's me!_

"What sorcery is this? What kinds of demons are you all?" he shouted, unable to take his eyes off his dead body.

"We no demons," the caveman corrected. "We ghosts." Thomas sighed. As he did, it brought a memory to him of the way Diana sighed. She would always shake her head at him, her bright curls bouncing slightly, perfectly framing her beautiful face. His eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, here come the waterworks. 'No, no, it can't be real' and all that malarkey," commented a severed head lying on the ground.

"I'm not crying because of that," Thomas sniffed.

"Good for you," commented the head sarcastically.

"Oh, be quiet, will you?" the young woman hissed at the head. "I'm so terribly sorry about him. That's Humphrey, by the way." The headless body waved. Next she pointed to the caveman, who grunted at him. "That's Robin." Then to the other woman. "That's Mary. And I'm Catherine, but you can just call me Kitty. Everyone else does, anyway."

"I'm Thomas. Thomas Thorne," he said quietly, reluctantly offering Kitty his hand, which she shook gently.

_I guess_, he thought with a sigh, _I might just survive being dead. _

**Author's Note:**

> Just for the record, I did have some face claims in mind for Diana and Lord Byron while writing this:  
Diana- Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark)  
Lord Byron- Douglas Booth (Great Expectations)
> 
> But feel free to imagine them however you want, that was just who I based their descriptions on.


End file.
